The Return of Mange2
by Generation X-er
Summary: The same story, with the paragraphs


                              The Return of Mange 

     The City of Townsville…….after dark. All the good citizenry, and most of the evil, are snug in their beds at this late hour, dreaming  sweet, and occasionally not-so-sweet dreams. Except for the denizens of Townsville's dark underworld. For those folk, night is the waking hour. For these are the denizens that lurk under the beds of Townsville's children…..denizens like…….. the Boogie Man!

     The Powerpuff Girls were all tucked in bed for the night. "Now good night Girls," the Professor had said. "You must get your sleep. Tomorrow is another big day."

    "Good night Professor." They said. 

   "Don't let those nasty bedbugs bite. And Buttercup, no teasing your sisters."

   The Professor shut the door to the Girls' room, and went downstairs to do some lab experiments. All three of the 'puffs pretended to be very much asleep…..but Buttercup got a sly look on her face, as she glanced at her sisters snoozing peacefully on either side of her. She dove under the covers. 

   Suddenly Bubbles and Blossom came awake. "Wh-what happened to Buttercup" asked Bubbles. 

   Then she saw the covers under which Buttercup was hiding begin to rise up Two slitting green eyes blazed with emerald fire within the darkness underneath. 

   When she saw them, Bubbles broke into a loud shrieking wail. 

   Blossom almost started screaming too, but then she recognized her sister, and threw off the covers. "Buttercup—stop trying to scare us! You heard the Professor!" 

      "Oh, drat!" said Buttercup "You spoiled all the fun!" 

     "Buttercup!" cried Bubbles "That wasn't nice!" 

     "Duh! I wasn't trying to be nice! I was trying to give you both a good scare. Looks like I got you pretty good-again! Haha!"

    "Are-are you sure that's you Buttercup?" Bubbles asked. 

     "What?!" 

     "Well….for a second I wasn't sure."

     "Like I said, I got you pretty good." 

      "Not wait, she's right!" said Blossom. "For a second I wasn't sure either! It didn't look quite like you?"

    "Oh really!" Buttercup laughed "Who'd you think I was, then? The Boogie man, and I was gonna eat ya?"

     "Oooooh! Don't say his name, Buttercup!" trembled Bubbles "He might hear you!"

     "Hah! Not still afraid of him are you?" 

     "Welllllll…….."

    "Ah, not to worry, Bubbles" Blossom assured her. "I don't think he'll be bothering us again."

    "You sure?" asked Bubbles. 

     "Pretty much. He tried to take over Townsville twice and we kicked his butt both times! I don't think he'll try it again." 

     "Ha! He'd better not!" laughed Buttercup.           

     "But what if he does?"

       "Then we'll kick his Boogie behind !" said Buttercup "Now go to sleep!"

   She rolled over, and soon all of them were in a deep slumber. 

    Except sometime later in the night, none of them were sure exactly when, Bubbles came awake. Her eyes started to open slowly. The room was flooded with darkness. But what she thought she glimpsed in those three seconds caused her to scream loud enough to wake her sisters. 

   "What! What is it Bubbles!" cried Blossom. 

    "Over there!" cried Bubbles in a shrill whisper. "In the corner!" she pointed. 

    "Oh, for crying out loud Bubbles!" said Buttercup. "Stop being a baby! That's just some clothes we left on a chair!"

     "NO!" Bubbles insisted "I saw that thing move. Really!"

    "Oh, for crying out loud!"  Buttercup repeated.

     "No, wait!" cried Blossom. "I don't think whatever that is was there when we went to sleep."

    Buttercup was about to make a stinging reply, but stopped short. She suddenly  wasn't sure that was there before either. 

   The three of them stared for several seconds into the shadows of the right corner of the room, at what could only be some of their clothes they had left piled and draped on a chair, but which each of them half expected to see move every second. 

Finally Buttercup said, "Oh geez. If those weren't there before, it's probably because the Professor came in when we were asleep and left them there." 

     Then two glowing red eyes appeared in the midst of the shadowy form. 

    All three of them gasped, as the thing they supposed was only clothes on a chair rose up from the floor, the portions they had thought clothes and chair respectfully, merged horrifically into one. The thing grew more intensely black, as it rose almost to the ceiling. It shambled toward them, a towering dark form like a wraith. The girls all screamed, as the thing towered over their bed, a shadowy, wraith-like form. 

     Then stick strings and globes of oozing saliva splattered on them, as huge jagged teeth became visible , gleaming in the feeble monnglow from their window. 

    "It's gonna eat us!" cried Bubbles. 

     "We'll see about that!" cried Buttercup. And with that, all three of the Girls were over their night-terror, as their heroic fighting personalities took control. They zoomed up for the shadowy form. Blossom socked the thing squarely in the teeth, actually knocking loose several long, curved fangs. Buttercup barreled into the thing's shady midsection. But it was like punching shadow, not substantial.   Bubbles wailed the thing in what passed for its head. The shadow-monster roared in rage at having its prey fight back. Then it gave a low moan, and crumpled to the floor. Blossom flicked on the light switch, and the Girls floated down to have a look at the thing they had defeated. 

  They all gasped. They where looking at pile of clothes, the extra sets of PPG outfits the Porfessor had just washed, strewn over the floor. 

   "Whoa!" said Buttercup. "Is _that _what we were just fighting?!"

    "So it was just our clothes the whole time…."murmured Bubbles. 

   "No!" said Blossom. "We saw that thing! It couldn't have been just clothes…._could_ it?" 

    They all looked at one another in dismay. Finally Buttercup said. "Oh, heck with it! It's gone now whatever it was! Let's get back to bed!" 

   Just then they all heard a yell from downstairs.

   "Professor!" they cried, and zipped through the door down the hall and down the flight of stairs to the Porfessor's laboratory in a flash of tricolored streaks. As they peered into Professor Utonium's laboratory, they gasped in shock to see his lab equipment strewn over the floor, beaker and tubes smashed and colored fluid splashed on the tiles. 

     "Whoa!" Buttercup cried. "Something must have happened to the Professor!"

     "He must be here somewhere!" exclaimed Blossom. "Professor! Professor! Where are you!"

     They zipped into the room, and began zooming around, looking everywhere for him, saw there was no sign of him.

    "Hold it!" cried Bubbles. "Check this out!" Blossom and Buttercup zipped up beside her, and all three Girls began reading the note Bubbles had found on the lab counter. It read: 

         Dear Powerpuff Pests, and Rude Despoilers of the Night, 

                          Listen up. I, the Boogie Man, the grooviest, swingin'-est dude in Townsville's dark underworld, have kidnapped your dear, sweet Daddy-o. So you pint-sized chicks better get to my swingin' pad in a jiffy, cuz the party's on! 

                                                                                     Yours truly,

                                                                                      That Most Feared Denizen of Darkness Himself,

                                                                                       The One-And Only Boogie Man

     "That creep calls himself the one and only?!" Buttercup remarked haughtily. "Hah! Yeah, and boy are we glad of that!"

     "Yeah, but he's got the professor!" exclaimed Blossom "We've got to save him! NOW! No telling what that creep might do to him!"

     "But it sounds like a trap!" cried Bubbles "I'm scared!"

     "We have to save the Professor," said Blossom. "You got over your fears the last two times we tangled with him, right?"

        "I know!" cried Bubbles " I just think we should have a plan first."

    "We can't really plan anything until we know what _he's_ planning." answered Blossom.

      "Ugh! Plan, schmlan!" exclaimed Buttercup. "Who cares what he's got in store this time! We licked him twice before, we can do it again!"

     "We do have to be careful, though," cautioned Blossom "We don't know what—hey! You guys hear that?"

    All of the Girls listened. In the silence of the deserted laboratory, a faint, faint throbbing beat reached their senses. Normal humans might have missed it, but the ultra-keen senses of the PPG picked it up. It was the far-distant beat of disco music. At first, they weren't quite sure where it was coming from, but soon their super senses were able to trace it to air vent here in the basement of the Professor's  lab. 

     They unscrewed the grid, and took off the cover. Then glided purposefully into the waiting darkness. The tunnel seem to extend forever into pitch-black.

   "Oh, it's soooo dark!" Bubbles shivered. But her fear for whatever trouble the Professor might be in spurred her and her sisters on.

     Their X-ray vision pierced the darkness ahead of them, highlighting everything in shades of infra-red.  

    They glided on until their vision located another tunnel, one that did not appear to be an air-vent tunnel at all, since it sloped down, and down at a wide angle, although it looked like one. It must have been designed for some other purpose. 

     The new tunnel's entrance was covered with a grid like the one they had gained access in the first place. They undid the cover and floated on in, down the slanting tunnel. 

     "This is weird!" said Buttercup. "Where's this thing go anyway?" 

    "Listen!" cried Blossom, "That weird music. It's getting louder!" 

    It seem louder from down here. They kept on following the tunnel, as it curved and angled around sharply, leading them ever downward. At last they reached another cover, which again they removed. It turned out this one led to a system of pipes. They had found themselves in a rather large one, whose gleamed in the light of their vision with what might have been oil. They kept on going, making quick turns and curves as the pipe zigzagged around. 

   At last pipe opened out into a vast area. Most of where they were was lost in darkness, but they somehow had the impression of being within an enormous space. 

   But the throbbing rhythm of the disco music had grown in volume. 

   "Where do ya thin we are?" asked Buttercup. 

   "I dunno." said Blossom "but judging from how far we've come down, I think we're in some kid of underground tunnel, deeper than a subway tunnel. That means somebody must live down here."

    "Oh, puh-lease!" said Buttercup. "Who would live down in this smelly old place?"

    "M-maybe they're monsters!" Bubbles suggested in a trembling voice. 

     "Hah!" said Buttercup with a sneering grin. "Could be! Betcha they eat scaredy little tykes named Bubbles!" 

    "Stop it, you guys!" said Blossom "The Professor's got to be down here somewhere!"

    The floated down the black tunnel It was much, larger, as though it had been designed, maybe for construction worker, but they all new they had be underneath even the Townsville sewer system by now. Following the beckoning sound of the music, they soon discovered they were in some kid of huge labyrinth. 

    But all it once they came to the end, and there it was.

   At the end of the corridor was a green door. What secret was it keeping?

   Actually, not much of a secret. Above the door flashed the bright neon sign advertising: 

                                                  THE BOOGIE CLUB

                                                     Members Only

                           Freaks, Monsters, and other Denizens of Darkness Welcome 

                                               All Others Keep Out!!!!!!

     There was a funky beat issuing from behind the door, and flickering multicolored disco light seeping from its frame. 

    "Let's get 'im!" cried Buttercup, juiced up for action. 

    The Girls crashed through the door. They found themselves in a room spinning with colored light—orange violet, crimson, peach, neon-blue, electric green—you name it. A flashing disco ball  spun overhead, allowing the coruscating colors to swirl dizzily. There was a bar at the far end of the enormous waxed-and-shining dance floor. The Girls knew at once they were in a nightclub for grown-ups. But such grown-ups! They found themselves in a ballroom infested with freakish monstrosities of every sort imaginable. Long-legged spider-things with multi-faceted eyes. Cat-things, with slitted demon-eyes, and terrible claws. Snakey reptile things, with multiple limbs. Things with eyes all over their heads. Hell-spawned satyrs. Bulging eyes toad-beasts.  Segmented worm-things with the rictus-mouths of lampreys, running with venomous  mucus. Things too gross to even mention. All of them were jamming and grooving wildly when the Girls crashed. 

    Then a heaving silence came over the room, as the music which hummed deafingly in their ears seconds before became silent. A spotlight materialized the center of the room. And within that spotlight….

   The Girls gasped. It was the Boogie Man, the coolest, goovingest hipster of the underworld, back for revenge. 

    "Well, look who's finally shown up for the jammin'-est party of the century! Bubbles, Blossom, and Buttercup! Let's have a big round of applause for 'em, ever-eee-bodeee!"

     The underworld nightmares screamed applauded and hooted, and whistled.

   "Cut the Crap!"  demanded Buttercup "tell us what you've done with the Professor!"

   "Yeah!" Blossom agreed. "What have you done with him!" 

     "Oooooh, yeah. That daddy of yours. Almost forgot about him. Reel 'im in boys!"

    At the Boogie Man's command, three snickering imps rolled in a metal slab on wheels. Strapped to it, a gag over his moth, was the Professor. 

    "Professor!" the Girls exclaimed in unison, as the streaked toward him. 

    "Not so fast, sugarcakes!" commanded the Boogie Man. He held out one jewel-fingered talon to stop them. "Come any closer, and my imps'll eat yore daddy alive!" The Powerpuffs  halted in the midair, gasping with horror.

    The imps squeaked and tittered savagely. 

    "_Let him go!!"_ screamed Blossom. 

   "Now don't you sisters go gettn' yerselfs all riled up!" said the Boogie Man. "Not to worry!  T'ain't _him_ we're after, nosiree! We'll let him go soon enough. Once you three are good and dead. See, it's _your_ final demise we're all celebratin'! Ain't that right, boys?" 

     _"Blame it on the Boogie!"_ cheered the nightmare assemblege. 

   "Oh, is that right Mr. Booger-breath!" challenged Blossom. "What's your take-over- Townsville-and-make-the night-last-forever scheme this time? As I recall the last two didn't work too well!"

_    "Only because you Powerpuff brats defeated me!"_ fumed the Boogie Man, displaying his vengeful anger for the first time. "First you accursed minions of light blew up my giant disco ball! Then you twerps got rid of my darkness-creating night lights! But this time! _This time_, your demise has finally come! For I have constructed a doorway to another realm! A plane of existence blanketed with eternal night! It is from this world that we denizens of darkness gain our form and existence! But in this world, the darkness _itself _has a life of it's own! It has the power to absorb the life-essence of all mortals! And that ain't all! It can also take the shape of any object—like say, clothes on a chair! I sent a monster formed of this darkness to wake you in bed, right after I'd kidnapped yore sweet 'ol Papa. That was what attacked you in the your room. And once you're all good and out of the way, darkness shall spread throughout the planter, and we minions of shadow and night will rule the night forever—_and party all night long!_

_     "Blame it on the Boogie!" _

     The Boogie Man gestured toward another door, not unlike the plain green one of the Boogie Club entrance, only this one appeared to be painted midnight black—so black there were shimmers of opaque light visible within its surface. 

     The Girls gasped, covering their mouths in fright.  The Boogie man twisted the knob with one clawed hand, and with a dagger-toothed grin that nearly divided his face in half, drew it slyly open. 

     Within the doorway was darkness. Not darkness when the lights are out, or the darkness within the bedroom closet. This darkness seemed to actually writhe and ripple like some kind of living being. It had life, it had purpose…..it had—_intelligence!_

It remained impossibly contained within the room-but for only a moment. Within seconds the living darkness began to seep out into the night club, flowing like living tide of shadow over the floor and walls. The Girls looked on, helplessly, as soon the entire room was steeped in it. Then, before their unbelieving eyes, they saw the shadowy substance actually form tendrils—writhing, twisting fingers of darkness that reached out for them. Bubbles screamed. 

   "Look out, guys!" cried Blossom. "It's coming for us!"

   "Let it!" said Buttercup angrily, punching out her fist. The other two Girls joined her, as they began kicking and hammering at the flailing tendrils. But it was though they were fighting insubstantial smoke. Their blows landed through nothing. They kicked and punched harder, but still there was no impact. Then they tried firing short bursts at it with their eye-beams. It was as though the shadow simply absorbed the energy from their assault.

    But then the snaking coils of shadow seized all three of them, holding the Girls in a suffocating death-grips. They rained blow after blow against their captor, but though it was still as they were fighting their own shadows, they could feel the terrible pressure that was squeezing the life out each of them. It was not like the feel of something solid. It was not quite like anything they knew. And yet they each knew it was killing them, that they would be dead soon if they couldn't break free.

   "Hahaha!" chortled The Boogie Man triumphantly, checking his diamond-studded watch. "Yes_sir_! In another five minutes, the night should be lasting forever! An' ah say BRING IT ON! _Yeah-mamma!"_

_     "Blame it on the Boogie!!!!"_

    Buttercup slammed her fists repeatedly against the shadowy coil that restrained her, struggling to breath.As much as she despised the merest notion of it, it looked as though the Boogie Man had finally won. She and her sisters were surely doomed. 

   But then, in the deepest, blackest regions of her mind, into which she had begun to descend into, she heard another voice, somewhat like that of the taunting Boogie man in the world she was leaving, yet very different. 

   "Yo, Buttercup!" the voice said. "Crazy seein' you here! Whass up?" 

    "What's up?!" screamed Buttercup in the voice of here deep-deep subconscious. "I'll let you know what's up Mr. Whoever-you-are! That creepy Boogie Man won! He's killed us all! And now he's gonna take over Townsville, and make the night go on forever." For one of the very few times in her life, Buttercup broke down and sobbed. 

       "Hey—don't take it too hard sugarplum! Been there myself! 'An now look at me!"

    Buttercup looked up. She had fallen on her knees on the smooth floor of a gigantic cavern. It wasn't like any place she knew of—not in the waking world, at least  She knew she was somewhere within her own mind. 

   And that meant the fanged, horned, slobbering monstrosity with eyes of hellishly glowing crimson before her couldn't be real. 

  But it certainly looked substantial enough, like she could reach right out and touch the horny, grayish, hide of the thing. For the entire world it looked like another bedroom-closet spawned nightmare, almost a twin of the Boogie man himself. 

    "Yup. Thass right. Just so happens, I'm the Boogie man's twin brother." The closet-beast said, droll spilling over his snakey red tongue when he talked.

     Buttercup almost jumped. 

   "Yeah. Heheh. Ah was readn' your mind right then."

   Buttercup eyed him skeptically. "Yeah right. The Boogie man's twin. I'm supposed to believe that. I happen to know I'm unconscious right now, and this is some kind of crazy dream, and you're not really here—hey! Ya know something? You do kind of look familiar."

    "Yeah I just told ya."

    "No! You are sorta like the Boogie Man. But….it's like I've met you somewhere before."

    "Well, guess what sweetcakes—yer right!" 

   Buttercup looked confused. 

   "Don't remember it, eh? Think back when you Girls wanted to be superheros like the ones you read about in the comics. You wanted to be like yer heroe from those comics you buy at Lenny Baxter's store after school!"

    "Oh, yeah!" exclaimed Buttercup "Spore! He's the greatest! I wanted to be just like him! So I got bored with being plain old Buttercup everyday, and decided to be—"

_    "Mange!"_ The monstrosity finished for her in a dark voice. "Mange, whose essence is formed of the darkness of the netherworld, who shuns all things of light! Who is cursed with the ability to assume any sahpe she wishes to combat the very forces of shadow that gave her birth!"

    "But…but it didn't work out too well that time." Finished Buttercup. "A monster was attacking Townsville. He only attacked during the day, and Mange refused to fight when the sun was out. But when the monster told us we weren't giving him a challenge, I changed back to my old self and we kicked his sorry butt! Man, it was good to be back!" She chortled with mischeif at the thought. 

    "But the darkness that is Mange still lives within you!" The monster whispered dramatically. "I had to destroy your living essence, then recreate you with darkness as a component of your being!"

   "Then…then you…."

    "Thass right, Buttercup! I was the beast lurking in your closet who transformed you!" 

     "But….but if you're a relative of the Boogie Man, you must be bad!"

    "You shouldn't listen to stereotypes, sweet sister! Well all like scaring kids, thass true enough. We came access, by climbing up through our invisible doorways in closets, under beds, and other dark places. But I never wanted to shut out the light and take over the mortal world, like my bro did. Between you and me, kiddo, I always thought he was sort of a fanatic, if ya know what ah mean." 

   "Tell me about it!" groaned Buttercup. "So. Let's hear how I can kick his sorry behind and save my sisters and the Professor!"

    "How do you think?" said the monster. "Just concentrate. Mange is part of you Let her essence fill you up. Then you will be able to combat the darkness. That's why I created her… to fight the minions of the underworld if they ever tried to make the night go on forever!"

   "But what about you? You can't really be here! This is all some stupid dream I'm having!" 

    "Oh yeah? Think on it! Well yore right  'bout me not being here. I'm really only speaking to you in your head through your own memories of me. I'm actually in some other part of the underworld where some of us _good_ horrors like to chill. Like I said, never had much use for that brother 'o mine! Way too full of himself! Now, kid—concentrate!" 

     Buttercup shut her eyes, and tried to summon the essence of Mange, her dark alter-ego. At first, she thought she'd forgotten what being Mange was even like. Then….

    Slowly, she felt the essence of shadow envelope her, taking over her very being. Her limbs dissolved and reformed into wispy tendrils of living darkness.  

   She opened her eyes, which now were slits burning with emerald hellfire, lit from within. Her consciousness had returned. She was back in the Boogie Club. She could see the Professor, bound and gagged, and the Boogie Man, gloating in triumph, over her two sisters, still struggled in vain, in the dreadful grip of the crawling shadow.  Buttercup was no longer herself. She had transformed into a being of shadow. This time, she glided easily out of the tendril's grip. 

   The Boogie Man, sensing something was up, turned around to gaze in her direction. "What the--?!" 

   Mange flew in the direction of the Boogie Man, eyes blazing hellishly. "Buttercup?!" he cried becoming frightened himself for the first time. "No! That can't be _you!"_

    "Wrong, Booger-nose!" she hissed. "My name is …._Mange!"_

But then she heard the plaintive cries of her sisters and remembered their plight. Buttercup-or Mange-swirled around and faced the crawling shadow that still held them in its terrible grip. She fired four quick beams of electric –green fire from her eyes into the shadowy thing that was choking them. This time the dark tendrils writhed as if in physical pain from the blast. The coils released Bubbles and Blossom, and as the Girls toppled to the floor of the nightclub, a nightmarish shriek tore out of the living shadow, as though it was inflicted with mortal pain. 

    Mange grinned nastily form somewhere inside. The thing, whatever its nature, was not invulnerable—at least not to something like her. 

   "Blossom, look!" Bubbles cried "It's Mange!"

   "Whoa! I thought we'd seen the last of her!" 

    "Not on your life!" answered Mange in her sinister-sounding voice. Then to the shadow, "Bring it on!" 

    The shadow made a sound once more. The Girls gasped, as what seemed like a gigantic mouth lined with rows of jagged shadow-teeth opened up in the pitch black center of the shadow. Another sound, this time a bellow of rage sounded—although the sounds it made were of some other world and the auditory vibrations it produced could not really be classified. Mange readied herself for the attack, as the monstrous thing came toward, filling the entire ballroom with deep darkness, the shadow-fangs gaping wide. Mange felt an irresistible force starting to pull her down into the equivalent of the thing's gullet. 

     She fired more lasers. The thing shrieked louder but did not slow an inch. Then Mange realized what she had to do. 

     Suddenly, she transformed. Her head retained its same basic form, her Buttercup hairstyle only growing more curved and pointed becoming the long ears of a witch's cat, but the shadowy non-substance of the rest of her took on size and depth, sprouting shadow-muscled limbs, and developing a torso. Long, razor-hooked talons of ebon night sprouted devilishly from her fingers. Her legs were steel-spring, her toes equipped with raptor-like claws. 

   Thus formed, Mange launched herself at the shadow thing. She began whipping and slashing at it with her talons, slicing through the shadow with claws like steak knives. And she literally tore the thing to pieces, was though she were eviscerating living flesh. The thing howled and screamed as Mange tore through the fangs, gouged out chunks of shadow, and dismembered coiling tendrils of darkness, only to have the shadow evaporate into nothing the moment it had been severed. 

    "Go, Buttercup!" Bubbles cheered her sister on "Oh,…I mean _Mange!"_

     "But it looks like that shadow is unstoppable!" said Blossom "Everytime she cuts it, it just reforms!" 

      She was right. Each time Mange sliced off a tendril, the shadow just formed new ones, like a shadow-hydra. And more and more shadow was pouring through the doorway….

   "That's it!" cried Blossom in sudden triumph. "The door! We've got to shut it out!"

   In twin flashes of sugar-pink and sky-blue, Blossom and Bubbles zipped for the door, and slammed it shut. 

  The shadow howled in agony, as it was suddenly cut off from its source. Mange kept on ripping and gouging, until the whole of it was dissolved. 

    Blossom and Bubbles both watched the form of Mange shrink and contract from the balefully glaring cat-humanoid to her original form. Then the shadow substance of which constituted her essence flickered and retracted within her, and she became plain old Buttercup again. 

     She was so drained of energy that she slumped to the floor. Blossom and Bubbles rushed to her side. "Buttercup! Are you okay? What happened? How did Mange….?"

     "I'm…..alright, guys. I just found out I still had the power in me. Are you…..?"

    "We're fine!" cried Bubbles. "You saved us!" 

    "Not exactly." Said Buttercup with a weak grin. "Mange did!"

     "Wait!" cried Blossom "We've still got something to do!" The Girls all looked at each other knowingly and streaked for the door to the shadow's world. They turned their deathrays on the crack surrounding the door, all three of them sealing it shut with laser fire. 

_    "Noooooooo!"_ screamed the Boogie Man.

    But the Girls had melted the door and jam together closing off the realm of eternal night. Then all three of them turned on the Boogie Man, wicked grins on their faces. "The party's over, Boogie Man!" announced Blossom.  

    "Yeah, Booger-breath!" sneered Buttercup "It's time we whipped your boogie butt!" 

     For a moment the Boogie man just looked at them pathetically, as though on the verge of breaking out into a sobbing fit. Then his face grew fiendish with rage, and he pointed. "_GET THEM!!!!!" _he roared, jaws dripping, tongue rippling.

    His minions rushed the Girls. But Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup made short work of them. Then kicked and punched, until the entire nightclub's assemblage of ungodly horrors lay piled on the dance floor. 

     Then they rushed in and hovered over the now cringing and terrified Boogie Man.  "No….no! Stay away from me! you…you …….awful….. _children!_ You're supposed to be terrified of me! Run away! Run away….before I …uh……eat ya…or something…..AAAAAGH!!!" The Girls rushed him slamming home punches and raining blows on him, until the Terror of the Underworld was reduced to bruised and crumpled heap. Then they cut through the Professor's bonds with their lasers and headed for home. 

     The next morning, the Professor had a talk with the Girls. "Now Girls, " he said "It really was too dangerous of you to come right into to the Boogie man's lair and all." 

     "But we had to try to save you, Professor!" cried Blossom. 

    "What dear, sweet girls I have!" the Professor said proudly. "Now Girls. What have we learned from last night's adventure?"

    "I know!" said Buttercup "We learned that sometimes it's better to someone else other than who you really are! That being yourself isn't always the best solution!" 

    "Well……I…..uh, " said the Professor. "That's not quite the way I would have said it but……that about sums it up, Buttercup." 

    "But who says Mange _isn't_ you, Buttercup!" exclaimed Blossom. "She's always going to be part of you, remember!" 

     "Yeh." Said Bubbles. "Could be she was always there, even before that closet monster changed you!"

    "Could be." said Buttercup. "But I know I can always call on her, if we need her." 

    "Hmmmmm." Said Bubbles.

     A week later the Girls were excused during kindergarten, when the Mayor called complaining about a hundred-foot monster that was destroying Townsville. 

    The Girls rushed to the scene. A huge hook-beaked, fin-crested monster that resembled Gigan was demolishing buildings with his enormous, sickle-like claws. Blossom and Buttercup were the first to attack, sending volleys of lasers at the monsters. It appeared this was going to be one of the Girls' tougher fights. The rays just bounced off the steel-armored hide. 

   Then a small voice called from down below.  "Oh, mister Monster!"

   The two Girls glanced downward, to see a small figure standing down on the pavement, directly in the monster's path. They rushed down to rescue whoever it was. 

     They found out it was Bubbles, offering the gigantic radiation-spawned mutant a large bouquet of carnation-red flowers. 

     She was dressed as—

    _"Harmony Bunny?!"_ Both Girls looked at her in surprise. 

    The monster leaned his huge, hook-beaked head down toward her, and sniffed the flowers. Then to their amazement, he grasped the bouquet in his monstrous beak, reared up, and stomped off in the direction of Monster Isle. 

     "See, Buttercup!" cried Bubbles. "It's like you said! Sometimes you have to be someone else, if you want to fix things!"

    "Hah!" answered Buttercup "Says who! We would've kicked his butt anyhow! We didn't need you to show up in that dumb animae-bunny costume!"  

    Bubbles looked sad. "But….but it worked didn't it?"

   ""Well yeah! So I guess that guys liked flowers! Ya just got lucky!"

   "But you took care of him!" Blossom exclaimed, "That what's important." 

         And so, once again, the day is saved by…….Mange?! And Harmony Bunny?! Hey, what about Liberty Bell, Blossom's character! Is she next? Sheesh!! 

                                                                                   FIN


End file.
